I will say this: This artifact is definitely extremely ancient...with sporatic calcification over the surface and within the characters. It is an
extremely hard and heavy stone bowl which shows no wear within the shallow concave surface from grinding. This leads me to believe it was possibly
used for memorializing or divining purposes.

I would say negative as a mortar. The concave surface appears, at least as photographed, to not be worn in the same way a natural stone
grinding/pulverizing surface does. It appears that the symbols are not worn. Decorating the inside of a grinding or mortar type device seems
counterproductive to me. The material you were grinding getting caught in the grooves and needing to be picked out.
I'll give you $10 for it!

If I guessed I would say alchemical runes. You seem to have a decent mix of different symbols there I can spot the circle with the middle dot for the
sun or in alchemy the symbol for gold. Also you seem to have a Vesica Pisces, the (Jesus fish) symbol, some schools of alchemy use it instead of the
traditional Pisces symbol, often times the Pisces was use for divination purposes, with it's relationship to water it would be present in seeing
fountains, fill the bowl with water you got yourself an old time crystal ball. Which perhaps is what this particular bowl was used for, however I
confused with some of the markings, like the circle surrounded by dots. This is also a symbol for the sun, however I have never seen it used as a gold
symbol like the other sun glyph.....

Also you don't normally see gold symbols with a seeing bowl.

So, I am a bit confused. A very interesting piece for sure, I will dig a little into the other symbols see what I can see.

It almost looks like it was part of something else. Is the piece missing in the first picture a broken off piece? Because it looks deliberately cut
out, maybe like it fitted onto a shaft. And on the second picture the shape almost looks like it has a pouring tip on the left side. I'm thinking
with all the symbols that it very possibly has something to do with ancient ceremony's, diffinatley not grinding.
A blessing bowl or something to do with alchemy. Maybe if it was fitted onto a shaft then alchemy, so the practitioner was away from whatever they
were pouring?

I was at my brother in law's house for Thanksgiving and he has a nice collection of antiquities. One in particular caught my eye and started a
discussion on druid, avery stones in the UK, etc. It looks like mortar and is about 10 inches wide.

Anywho, I took some pictures of the writing and if anyone (Zorgon this means you) could tell me what this means, I would appreciate it.

Originally posted by k0mbination
It almost looks like it was part of something else. Is the piece missing in the first picture a broken off piece? Because it looks deliberately cut
out, maybe like it fitted onto a shaft. And on the second picture the shape almost looks like it has a pouring tip on the left side. I'm thinking
with all the symbols that it very possibly has something to do with ancient ceremony's, diffinatley not grinding.
A blessing bowl or something to do with alchemy. Maybe if it was fitted onto a shaft then alchemy, so the practitioner was away from whatever they
were pouring?

Your post got me to thinking about the missing/broken section of what I assume to be the lower underside of this artifact...While it looks like a
clean/faceted break...it is off-center to the bottom edge and relatively shallow in relation to the thickness of this disc along it's rim. This would
mean that, although the stone is extremely hard and heavy, if it were used as a head piece to a staff or rod, the weight-related pressure would still
be substancial...relative to the structural and tensile strength of the stone itself.

Nevertheless, it is an interesting and still-valid idea...especially when one takes into account the fact that this artifact is not just carved with
characters and symbols on the concave surface (top?), but on the underside and the full circumference of the outer edge of the rim, as well. This
could indicate a use beyond that of a skrying bowl, as when used for that purpose alone, the character elements on the underside would not be seen.

I am researching this piece, very interesting. I can see a few of the "symbols" around the outer edge in the first pic, and I feel that they will
be vital in producing a translation.

Is there any way for you to photograph the rest of the "symbols" around the rim? Even if you laid it upside down, and photographed it upside down
while rotating, we'll find orientation from the notch. It's easier to flip an image than it would be to to get proper lighting.

The way I am viewing it for now, the bottom inscriptions denote the original owner/family, the "symbols" inside are an instruction set, and the ones
around the edge are the actually "message" or binding for the rest of the bowl.

I am researching this piece, very interesting. I can see a few of the "symbols" around the outer edge in the first pic, and I feel that they will
be vital in producing a translation.

Is there any way for you to photograph the rest of the "symbols" around the rim? Even if you laid it upside down, and photographed it upside down
while rotating, we'll find orientation from the notch. It's easier to flip an image than it would be to to get proper lighting.

The way I am viewing it for now, the bottom inscriptions denote the original owner/family, the "symbols" inside are an instruction set, and the ones
around the edge are the actually "message" or binding for the rest of the bowl.

Thank you...I have forwarded some additional photos of the rim symbols to ArcAngel for posting. They should be up as soon as he comes back on
line...These are similar in appearence...with an odd series of five evenly-spaced dots along the lower portion of the rim; these seperate the
contiguous series of fourteen additional characters/symbols.

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